MUMBAI: Aam Aadami Party's ( AAP) strategies to attract voters on basic issues of water and electricity, seem to be influencing not just the ruling Congress in Maharashtra but also the Shiv Sena. After the Congress's initiative in the state to review power tariff, its now the turn of the Shiv Sena to imitate AAP's Delhi agenda. The Shiv Sena has now announced that it has already been providing over 500 litres of water almost free in Mumbai and is equipped to provide 1075 litres to every household in the city.

The Shiv Sena controls the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), which supplies drinking water to Mumbai city and suburbs. Influenced by AAP's politics in Delhi, BMC's standing committee chairman and Sena leader Rahul Shewale has now declared that the BMC is already providing over 566 litres of water at a subsidised rate and it is now equipped to provide 1075 litres per household even as the demand for water increases.

Mumbai's demand for water increases at about 10% every year with water supply in the city is likely to become a political issue in the coming months.

The BMC administration as well as the political leadership at the BMC claim that the new middle-Vaitarna lake project of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation is going to considerably add to the Municipal Corporation's water storage and supply capacity. "The BMC spends about Rs 9.09 per thousand litres of water for purification and transport. We provide water at about Rs 4.30 per thousand litres to consumers in Mumbai so we are already giving a subsidy of over 50% in water supply. In the future we are ready to handle additional demand and provide even more water to the city," Shewale said.

Meanwhile Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray said on Monday that AAP will not be able to make any major impact in Maharashtra.